IEEE Std 3004.

8-2016
IEEE Recommended Practice for Motor Protection in Industrial and Commercial Power Systems

8.4  Fault protection

8.4.1  Motor current differential element (Device 87M)

8.4.1.1 General

Motor current differential protection measures the current flow into a load and compares it to the current mea-
sured on the neutral side of the motor. For normal operation, the current going in and the current going out
match and cancel. A current difference is detected as a fault. These schemes can be applied to any motor load,
but often are applied only to large or critical motors where damage could be costly or replacement difficult.
By detecting faults at a low level, damage can be confined to the windings. The general recommendations for
applying differential current protection are as follows:

a) With all motors 750 kW (1000 hp) and larger on ungrounded systems
b) With all motors 750 kW (1000 hp) and larger on grounded systems where the ground fault protection
is considered inadequate without differential protection to protect against phase-to-phase faults
c) Motors 1900 kW (2500 hp) and larger

8.4.1.2  Device 87M, Conventional phase differential overcurrent relay

A conventional phase differential relay senses low-level phase faults and removes power quickly before ex-
tensive motor damage develops. This scheme uses six identical CTs (one pair for each phase) and three relays
(one per phase). The CTs should be sized to carry full load current continuously and to not saturate during an
external or internal fault (see Figure 27). The currents from each pair of CTs circulate through the relay-re-
straining windings under normal (i.e., no-fault) conditions. For a fault in the motor windings or in the cable,
the CT secondary currents have different magnitudes and/or polarities, and the differential current from each
CT adds to the other and operates the Device 87 to trip the motor circuit breaker. This scheme is employed for
both delta connected motors and for wye connected motors. With the wye connected motor, three of the CTs
are normally located at the starter (or motor switchgear) and the other three in the three phases at the motor
winding neutral. For a delta connected motor, differential protection (Device 50GS) shown in Figure 28 b)
should be easier to implement. For conventional differential protection, a large junction box will be required to
install CTs and delta winding connection arrangement.

Figure 27—Conventional phase differential protection using three (3) percentage differential
relays

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